How Erika Lust changed the porn industry forever

Have you ever wondered what a porn headquarters looks like? Maybe you’re imagining scantily-clad porn stars wandering around, or employees masturbating furiously at their desks. The reality is more boring than that. Aside from porn stills on the walls, vulva-shaped cushions, and awards sculpted like dildos and butt plugs, the Erika Lust office in the centre of Barcelona is relatively ordinary. People sit at their desks, meticulously editing cinematic sex acts, strategising explicit content to avoid social media censorship, or sifting through anonymous erotic confessions to turn into porn films. There’s a finance department, HR, and a mini chapel that, OK, used to be an in-office masturbation space, but is now adorned with archive porn stills to create a house of worship, of sorts, for porn.

Over the last two decades, Lust – a political science graduate turned film graduate turned porn behemoth – has strived to challenge social perceptions of what porn can be and expand the narrow (middle-aged, male, heterosexual) perspective from which it was, and still largely is, being made. As well as blurring the lines between porn and cinema (by creating narrative-led, art house films), focusing on inclusivity, and challenging gender norms, Lust has also been a vocal advocate for sex workers’ rights, sex education, and sex positivity, and has blazed the trail when it comes to safer working conditions (including bringing intimacy coordinators to sets). 

She’s prolific, too, making 300 porn films in 20 years, which averages out to one per month. Her first was 2004’s The Good Girl (which she made when she was just 27 years old), a short film that flips the pizza delivery guy porn cliché on its head by telling it from the female perspective. In 2013, she created XConfessions, a series that quite literally brings viewers’ wet dreams to life by inviting them to anonymously submit their sexual fantasies for Lust to turn into films. Lust and her partner Pablo Dobner also created The Porn Conversation, a much-needed platform that offers free sex education tools for parents and teachers.

When we meet in Barcelona – first at her office and later at a celebratory event aptly held at the city’s Museu de l’Art Prohibit (Museum of Censored Art) – it’s easy to see how Lust has accomplished so much in two decades. She never stops. “It’s funny because when people come [to the office], they go, ‘It’s so busy’,” she tells me when I comment on the flurry of activity around us. “But it’s like this always! That’s how my life is.”

If making films in a stigmatised industry wasn’t busy and stressful enough, Lust, like all porn creators, has faced unprecedented challenges over the last two decades. Notably, the arrival of free adult tube sites like Pornhub – which started taking off in the mid to late 00s, and have since transformed not only the adult industry, but our sexual culture more broadly – the boom in autonomous content via subscription platforms like OnlyFans, as well as strict social media censorship, financial discrimination, and technological developments, like AI, all of which are constantly threatening to overthrow the industry completely.

So, to mark 20 years of surviving everything that’s been thrown her way – and to celebrate the publication of her new book, Erika Lust Archives 2004-2024, which documents it all – I sat down with Erika Lust to reflect on how her work has altered the porn landscape, why anti-porn sentiment is on the rise, and what role porn plays in young people’s lives today.

You’re a pioneer when it comes to cinematic pornography. Why don’t more people see porn as an art form?

Erika Lust: Because they don’t put any value in it. They used to see it as an art form. Remember when porn got into the big cinemas in the 60s and 70s? Back then, the porn that people could watch was made by filmmakers; by people who had some taste, idea, or feeling that they wanted to tell a story in a certain way. The first creators of porn were part of a liberal movement that wanted to spread new messages about sex to people. It was a reaction to a conservative society. They were activists. Then what happened to porn is that it became about business; it became about earning as much money as possible while making as little effort as possible.

How has Erika Lust altered the porn landscape over the last two decades? In what ways do you see your influence in the industry today?

Erika Lust: Lots has changed, not only because of me, but because of the world we live in. I’ve seen the feminist movement changing cultural ideas and values; the queer movement changing the way we see heteronormativity and gender. Then there’s the impact of technology and the internet. Before tube sites, big companies had all the power in the adult industry and the business model was to make great content that people were interested in buying via videotapes or DVDs. But the tube sites weren’t interested in making good videos, they were interested in quantity; they used sex to drive traffic so they could sell ads. And that business model collapsed the whole industry. I’ve seen all of this, right? I survived it.

Why do you think you survived?

Erika Lust: Because we created a community and a product that’s different. There’s a cinematic quality to it; there’s a care for performers and narratives; there’s a care not only for diversity, but for inclusivity, for really showing people the way they want to be shown and having them participate in the process. We started pretty early on talking about working conditions in this industry, about how to work with performers and how to make sets as safe as possible – creating standards, a bill of rights, working with intimacy coordinators. I’ve seen how the [mainstream porn] industry started to get worried and suddenly had their eyes on the independent producers, saying, ‘We need to learn a bit from them’. And now bigger companies still operating in this industry have got much more ethical.

What have you learned about audiences’ desires over the last 20 years?

Erika Lust: At the beginning, audiences were very boxed into their own identities and sexualities, but they’ve started to mix much more. Now, when we’re looking at what people are watching, we’re seeing that there’s no such thing as, for example, a gay woman just watching lesbian porn. I’m especially happy to see many heterosexual, cis guys opening up their understanding and acceptance of other identities and sexualities through porn, as there’s a growing interest among men for bisexual content.

While audiences today are more sex positive in many ways, it feels like we’re at a tipping point when it comes to censorship and discrimination – whether that’s financial, legal, or social – particularly in relation to porn. Why do you think anti-porn sentiment is on the rise?

Erika Lust: We’re facing a world that’s becoming more polarised. So as one movement is becoming bigger, the other is, too. And [because of our individual social media algorithms], we’re living in two completely different worlds. I’m being fed with my messages all the time, so I’m starting to believe that we live in my little bubble. But when you see someone like Trump coming back again, it’s scary. There’s a feeling that we’re becoming stronger – women, trans people, queer people – and so the [conservative folk] are becoming more scared. But that group is full of wealthy men with access to land, property, business, and lawmaking, [so they have the power to make things tangibly worse for us].

How can adult companies like Erika Lust survive in increasingly restrictive circumstances like this?

Erika Lust: I’ve already been so restricted. It’s been years since I’ve been able to grow on social media – I’m deplatformed all the time, I lose accounts. It’s part of the game, and I know that. So I don’t invest too much time into it. At the same time, some of the big porn stars or brands can link to their OnlyFans accounts [on social media], even though we’re all respecting the rules of explicitness and nakedness. The difference is that they obey the rules of patriarchy and we don’t. If you’re ready to objectify yourself, then it’s okay because you do a service to patriarchy, but if you’re challenging it with other types of images, situations, and people, then you’re being political.

“Instead of criticising porn in a constructive, good way, and trying to make it better, what’s happening? Prohibition. And we have to lay the cards on the table: we gave young people technology, but we’re not giving them education” – Erika Lust

What place do you think porn holds in young people’s lives today?

Erika Lust: Porn has had a huge influence on how younger people are understanding sex. Obviously when I grew up, there was access to porn, but not in the way there is today. Now, porn is influencing our values and society much more than it did before. And the problem here is really a lack of sex education. Young people are not receiving the sex education that they deserve, want, and are curious about. They should not be shamed for seeking out sex – for watching it and wanting it. But if you don’t have adults, schools, and parents who are talking to you about it and helping you to understand it in a media literate way, then all the messages that porn – most of which is tube site porn that can sometimes be chauvinistic, racist, and homophobic – is sending to you, then that’s problematic. I think it’s sad that we don’t talk about it more. Instead of criticising porn in a constructive, good way, and trying to make it better, what’s happening? Prohibition. And we have to lay the cards on the table: we gave them technology, but we’re not giving them education.

It’s bizarre to me that lawmakers can’t see that. If you teach young people media literacy – or porn literacy – then they’d know that porn is a fantasy…

Erika Lust: I mean, many people are trying to make porn look as if it’s real. I hear people saying, ‘But there’s so much amateur porn’. Most amateur porn is professionally-made porn. It’s not a happy couple in their home making the porn – it’s a company! So it would be great if we could [teach that].

Many people outside of this industry think that it’s a bit of a clown industry. But it’s not. It’s a very serious industry where people want the best for everyone. And I think it’s in the interest of the industry at the moment to show that they’re serious, and to separate themselves from the free tube site porn that’s open to everyone. Because what we’re seeing now is a panic about young people accessing porn that was never meant for them. That was never the idea, but technology has made it possible. The next step is to make sure that’s not happening, so certain companies need to step up and change their policies. The easiest way would be to put it all behind a payment barrier because then only adults can access it. If the industry doesn’t do it, the policymakers will. And I don’t think adults need to have what they watch policed; they have the right to watch sex, and shouldn’t have to give all their private details to do so. But if the industry doesn’t change, that is going to happen, and that’s going to have an effect on us.

Where do you see Erika Lust – and the porn industry more broadly – in 20 years?

Erika Lust: I want to see porn movies celebrated on big screens. I want to see them influencing Hollywood, leading to the creation of Oscars and BAFTAs for the best intimacy coordinators. At Erika Lust, we envision a porn and cinema industry that prioritises the safety and well-being of actors and actresses on set, teaching how to protect them during intimate scenes. 

[More broadly,] I hope for a society where people can openly discuss sex at the dinner table, recognising that sex can be positive, equal, and diverse. I want to highlight the powerful stories behind our films. I’m imagining a conversation like, ‘Did you see The Wedding by Erika Lust? It was so inspiring to see an open marriage and how you can be in love with someone while also having fun and consensual sex with others’. Our vision is a world where sexual expression is celebrated, understood, and openly discussed, thanks to the positive influence of thoughtful, well-crafted adult films.

To mark Erika Lust’s 20th anniversary, you can watch The Good Girl in full for free here or buy Erika Lust Archives: 2004-2024 here.